Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Should Donald Trump Return The Purple Heart That Was Given To Him?

(CNN)Khizr Khan on Tuesday accused Donald Trump of dodging the Vietnam War draft, and said he shouldn't have accepted a Purple Heart given to him at a rally earlier in the day, deeming it the latest sign of his inability to empathize with parents of fallen soldiers.

"You dodged the draft," Khan, a Muslim whose son was slain in the Iraq War, said of Trump to CNN's Anderson Cooper. "Put that Purple Heart back on that person's chest."

A military veteran supporting Trump had gifted the Republican presidential nominee his Purple Heart, prompting Trump to say he "always wanted to get the Purple Heart" and this was "much easier" than serving in combat.
Khan's own son, Capt. Humayun Khan, was also a Purple Heart recipient. It is bestowed upon those wounded or killed in combat.

WNU Editor: The event where Donald Trump was given a Purple Heart is here .... Veteran gives Purple Heart to Trump (The Hill). What's my take .... I am seeing more of Khizr Khan on TV than Democrat VP candidate Tim Kaine. On a side note .... I always look at the audience reaction and attendance for these election rallies .... and I have noticed something about the Tim Kaine campaign .... the audience is small and in small venues, the photos are all close-ups, and there is no passion from the audience. For the Hillary campaign .... audience is bigger, but the passion is also muted.

Anyone who has ever been given a medal by a military service member that was given to them and was earned by that service member knows you DO NOT give it back. For them to give you this, is among the highest honors they can bestow upon a civilian. To give this back would be viewed as an egregious insult to the service member who bestowed it upon the civilian. To give it back publically would only add to the insult.

If Mr. Kahn had any kind of relationship at all with his son, he would know this. Perhaps he does. Mr. Trump foolishly walked straight into a trap set by the Kahns and the Democrats. Perhaps they think he is stupid enough to walk right into another one. They may well be right.

With that said Mr. Trump's response to this seems a bit caviler. I think he did not know what to say and he always has to say SOMETHING this is what popped out of his mouth. As I've said, his mouth tends to get ahead of his brain.

Mr. Obama was the first African American with any shot at being POTUS. Even those who did not vote for him loved him for this. When he ran he was the most loved man in the history of America even by those who did not support his policies. As such, there was no reason to "vet" his crowds.

Mr. Khan seems to be having some of his own problems. A hastily deleted website for his law business regarding immigration (since saved by the wayback machine) for example. My personal opinion of the Khan's is they are slimey political tools that dishonored the memory of their son and others that have died in service. And doom on the media for shoving this forward.

I had read about this. I think your opinion is the correct one regarding the Khans. Unfortunately Mr. Trump handled this one foolishly. It also seems clear that Mr. Kahn's and his son did not communicate much. If they had, Mr. Kahn would know why Mr. Trump cannot give the medal back. All other service personnel would know this as well.

With that said military personnel are usually more circumspect about who they give these medals to than this particular person was and it generally is not done publically but this is the service member's right to give the medal to whomever they choose and in what forum they choose to do so. Perhaps the service member and Mr. Trump have an intimate relationship that goes back a long way. Generally such things are not discussed except between the service member, the civilian who is given the medal, and other service members known to both parties.

The problem with releasing the tax returns is they are under audit and will be subjected to change. I am a Certified Public Accountant in the United States and would NEVER advise a client to release a tax return that is under IRS examination to the public without the advice and consent of a tax attorney and I can say with a high degree of confidence that an attorney would not advise their client to so either.

Even if he releases them now, no one is going to be able to understand them and they will reveal that he is very, very rich which is already known. With no upside to releasing the current tax returns accompanied by huge downsides it would be inadvisable to release them at this point.

If they contained something that would be harmful Mr. Trump, I think we can be pretty certain the IRS would have already released them in order to sink his campaign on behalf of Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton.

Time permitting I will read the link to the article you posted. Very respectfully I think you misunderstand what Mr. Trump and his team are trying to do. They are trying to defuse tensions with a very powerful country who can do us tremendous harm and whose help we are going to need if we are going to properly represent American interests. I think a number of people mistake attempts to defuse tensions as a "man crush" or something.

In acting to inflame an already tense situation when it was completely and wholly unnecessary, what the Democrats and team Clinton have done is the equivalent of dumping gasoline on a forest fire or little children playing with matches under a bed. Such people either need to be placed in insane asylums or under adult supervision until they can acquire the maturity to be treated as adults.

On the one side we have one group (team Clinton) acting to increase tensions with a major power who can do us TREMEHDOUS harm and whose assistance we are going to need to properly represent our interests and they are doing this for no good reason other than short term political gain. On the other side (team Trump) are trying to reduce tensions and procure constructive relations with this power. As such, I think it obvious who the piece of sh!t is.

Thank you for the link. As I suspected, the author of the article either fundamentally misunderstands the desire of team Trump to build better relations witb a great power like Russia's whose assistance we are going to need or the author is a Clinton shill.

Furthermore I'm pleased to see he has someone on his team in Carter Page who has advocated a lifting of sanctions on Russia. I've advocated this for a long time. Placing sanctions on Russia over Ukraine was the stupidest decision a major power has ever made. Apparently stupid has much company in this case.

As for his initial position on Ukraine, as smart people become more versed in the facts, they alter their positions on things. Apparently Mr. Trump has done this.

I'd also add the author of the article fundamentally misunderstands how corporate bankruptcies work.

About Me

I have been involved in numerous computer science projects since the 1980s, as well as developing numerous web projects since 1996.
These blogs are a summation of all the information that I read and catalog pertaining to the subjects that interest me.